As you will notice my previous post was for corporate crime! When I did my research the Bhopal gas disaster took my attention. I didn’t know or heart anything about it before, I was not even born that time but this is not an excuse! We must be informed of these extremely huge disasters even If they are two thousand years ago because most importantly such disasters as the Bhopal one has to do with human lives! However we could inform our selves by searching. From what I found from my research, I will now talk and inform you about this disaster.
The world's worst industrial catastrophe is the Bhopal gas tragedy. It happened on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in India. A leak of methyl isocyanate(MIC) gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the death of several thousands of people.
Estimates of the death toll vary greatly. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.[1] Other government agencies estimate 15,000 deaths.[2] Some approximate that 3,000 died within weeks and that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.[3] In 2006 a government affidavit stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and about 3,900 permanently and severely disabling injuries.[4] You could understand from these estimates the great and very huge size of the disaster. Is very problematic and I could say what happened was inhuman.
The UCIL factory was built in 1969 to produce the pesticide Sevin using methyl esocynate (MIC) as an intermediate. A MIC production plant was added in 1979. Mr Y P Gokhale, the managing director of Union Carbide in India, stated that Mic Had escaped when a valve in the plant's underground storage tank broke under pressure. As a result a deadly cloud of lethal gas float from the factory over Bhopal.
Bhopal is home to more than 900,000 people who many of them live in slums. Now you could understand or figure the size of the disaster. Its obvious that chaos and panic prevailed in the city. Ten thousands of people attempted to escape. Thousands of cats, dogs and cows were dead on the streets. More than 20,000 people have required treatment for symptoms such as frothing at the mouth, swollen eyes and breathing difficulties. Estimates claim that 50,000 people were suffering from terrible side-effects, blindness, kidney and liver failure. Campaigners stated that nearly 20,000 other have since died from the effects of the leak. Many woke up only because they heard their children coughing. As people jumped up from their beds, they felt their eyes and throat burning. Other feel to the ground in contortions of pain. People ran and ran, but they didn't know in which direction to go. Families were split in the confusion. Many people fell to the ground unconscious.Ahmed Khan, the Bhopal resident said: "We were choking and our eyes were burning. We could barely see the road through the fog, and sirens were blaring. We didn't know which way to run. Everybody was very confused. Mothers didn't know their children had died, children didn't know their mothers had died and men didn't know their whole families had died."
One of the worst parts of this tragedy is actually what has happened in the years following. The company immediately tried to detached itself from legal responsibility. They claimed that they were not liable for any damages because they blamed a saboteur for the disaster and claimed that the factory was in good working order before the gas leak. . Ultimately it reached a settlement with the Indian Government through mediation of that country's Supreme Court and accepted moral responsibility and paid $470 million in compensation. This is a quite small amount based on the large underestimations of the number of people who have been exposed and of the long-term health consequences as many of the victims are unable to work and continue to live in ill health.
· The penalty
The Union Carbide factory was closed immediately after the accident and three senior members of staff arrested. Medical and scientific experts have been dispatched to the scene and the Indian government has ordered a judicial inquiry. Civil and criminal cases are pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL employees, and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster. In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed by law. An eighth former employee was also convicted but died before judgment was passed.However, since the disaster, India has experienced industrialization. Some behaviors of new industries and positive changes in government policy have taken place. But major threats to the environment from poorly regulated industrial growth remain. Widespread environmental deprivation with significant adverse and human health consequences continues to occur in India.
As I said in the beginning what happened was inhuman! I saw many photos on Google from the disaster and honestly what happened was not only inhuman but also “MORRALY UNACCEPTABLE”. For me such mistakes are not allowed in the world of industry and must be punished NOT ONLY BY FINES; I may be a bit strict about that but we must reconsider the penalty that the law imposes to such cases. We are talking about human lives, THOUSANDS OF HUMAN LIVES! We are talking about families, children, mothers, fathers, even dogs and cats! These are lives too! I will close with the quote “No more Bhopals” for the good of the humanity! But if you read this I want you to set a question to yourself. If this will happen to you, to your country, to your family what are your feelings going to be?? What you will do about this?? You are going to live it happen to you? Because if you don’t do anything about this, be sure this will happen again may be not to you but in other peoples life.
Further reading:
R.Varma & Daya R. Varma ,The Bhopal Disaster of 1984,<http://huberb.people.cofc.edu/Readings/340%20Readings/Bhopal%20Disaster%20of%201984.pdf>
[2] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34247132/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/page/2/ December 2, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2009.
[4] AK Dubey (21 June 2010). First14 News. Archived from the original on 26 June 2010.http://www.webcitation.org/5qmWBEWcb. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
3 comments:
A realy nice post keep it up Andrea
It is an interesting issue. I like your post Andrea :)
Thanks Joy:)
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